Israeli Jets scramble to escort Delta flight!!

Israeli Jets scramble to escort Delta flight!!

news.yahoo.com

JERUSALEM – Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to escort a Delta Air Lines plane flying from New York to Tel Aviv after the pilot activated a hijacking alert by mistake.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I've been an airline pilot, it is so rare for a crew to "accidentally" activate a hijacking alert that it is extremely doubtful.....AND, "A technical malfunction had prevented the pilot from communicating with the airport's control tower."

That is an "accidental activation" by a highly experienced international flight crew AND a radio failure at the same time?

Something is wrong here.......

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

something does sound a bit off on there "mistake" reason...

will see how this unfolds really, but it sets off some questions in me mind

reply to post by Darth_Prime


Yes, if it doesn't disappear from the MSM, it will be interesting.....An "accidental activation" is not as simple as flipping the wrong switch or the wrong key on the FMS (computer)....

exactly mate, but then i ask me'self why? whats the bigger picture to this all? whats the meaning behind it? obviously it wouldn't be for the good..



[edit on 11-4-2009 by Darth_Prime]

doubtful the real meaning is good, Delta (as all US flag carriers) is part of the CRAF (Civil Reserve Air Fleet), therefore goes through DOD inspections and monitoring, the ties from the flag carriers to the government are big and complex......Just throwing out ideas, but, maybe something did occur and the IDF aircraft were needed. The story sounds too made up with too little data to not be a cover for something.

Probably lost comm with aproach or tower and put in the wrong lost comm code in the box, one digit off.......

reply to post by habu71


Oh, c'mon!

Are we supposed to believe they squawked 7500 by accident? Where were they? They had to have been talking to ATC. Three VHF and two HF radios, all failed?!?

Where I flew we had SATCom as well.

I'm sorry, something doesn't add up.

There is a (in hindsight) rather funny story about a NorthWest jet from some years ago, over the North Atlantic. (pre-2001, I think) The dispatcher send a text message to the crew via ACARS, something along the lines of 'how's it going?' (I think he wanted a MET report).

The pilots thought they'd be clever and wrote back 'It's dark and we're scared'.

Well, the dispatcher jumped to the conclusion that the jet had been hi-jacked, and that the crew couldn't speak in the clear!!

I forget their destination in Europe, but everyone had been alerted to the 'hi-jacking'...except for the hapless crew.

Flagged, this does seem a little suspicious here. Does anyone here know the process for activating the distress transmitter for the planes? I would imagine it takes a little more than just pressing a button. Usually there I'd expect there to be some sort of safety switch you'd have to hit first.
Maybe the deactivation/override of the radios is an added feature to the distress transmitter? It could be possible that when it gets activated that the transmission gets routed through the pilots' radio so it couldn't be used for anything else.

Edit: double post, please disregard

[edit on 11-4-2009 by spec_ops_wannabe]

avherald.com...

A Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration N1607B performing flight DL-86 from New York JFK,NY (USA) to Tel Aviv (Israel) with 105 passengers, lost communications over the Mediterranean approaching Israel and was not able to establish required communication procedures on entry into Israel's airspace. Israel scrambled fighter jets to identify the aircraft and verify, that the airplane was not hijacked. After the fighter crews established visual communication with the Delta crew, the flight was permitted to continue to Tel Aviv under escort, where the 767 landed safely with about 40 minutes delay.

[edit on 4/11/09 by makeitso]

reply to post by spec_ops_wannabe


Besides the transponder, there is method via the ACARS using the FMS keypad....but it takes several menus to deliberately get there. And, if I recall, there was a prompt that asked you to confirm before sending.

reply to post by makeitso


Thnks, makeit.....much better source than Yahoo, it would seem.

As Desi Arnaz would say, "They got a lot of 'splainin' to do!"

Missing a frequency change is common....especially after the nearly 11-hour flight and the associated fatigue (flying on the 'back' side of the clock).

Still...to lose all the VHF at the same time?? Hardly likely.

reply to post by makeitso


Nothing about the transponder.......hmmmmmmm

reply to post by weedwhacker


True about the ACARS, even if (a big if) vhf comm was gone, HF?

Very very suspicious, especially for the Israelis to let it land just on visual recognition. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I'd suspect that flight was a setup and somebody expected it to get shot down and start an international incident. Good thing we don't have a shadow government that would gain from something like that, so I can relax now. There's a re-run of American Idol coming on TV.

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


No, probe....there are established intercept procedures and hand signals.

But, I reckon they eventually had comm again.

*only 105 pax? Out of 215 seats? no wonder the airlines are hurting*

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


Standard policy, even for Israel, is to identify, and try to make visual contact with the crews. If they can make visual contact, they attempt to make radio contact. Shoot downs, even for "trigger happy" (yes that's sarcasm folks) Israelis is a last ditch circumstance.

Apparently this is not without precedent.

www.israeltoday.co.il...

Thursday, April 12, 2007 by Staff Writer

Four fighter jets, two F-16s and two F-15s, scrambled to intercept a Continental flight when it failed to make contact with Air Traffic Control at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

[...]

"Continental Airlines Flight 90 from Newark with 251 passengers landed safely in Tel Aviv at 4:30 this afternoon. Before the arrival, there was a temporary lapse in communications between the plane and the Air Traffic Control tower, and responsibility for the flight was passed from one control tower to a second one.

Originally posted by weedwhacker
No, probe....there are established intercept procedures and hand signals.

Which might be sufficient if they just had a comms failure, but how about when the hijacking alert has been activated? Would the IDF just nod and wave at an airliner heading for the capital in that situation? I don't see it.